“Jews and Italians in Greater New York City, 1880 to World War I” explored patterns of immigration amongst the Jews and the Italians. New York continued to be a place of refuge for many immigrants alongside being an economically, politically, and spiritually attractive place to settle. While many Jews used their industrial skills as an advantage and others strongly believed in movements like the Bund, which was the Jewish branch of the Social Democratic Party, there was a portion of Jews who rejected immigration on the basis of religion, believing that America was a land lacking spiritual values and people were plagued with greed. Thus, it wasn’t until persecution intensified that leading rabbis and their followers joined the mass migration. Due to intense oppression, well-educated and politically active Jews consisting of Bundists, Zionists, and Yiddish poets became part of the immigrant stream. This stream differed from the prior immigrant group known as the shtetl, or small town dwellers. They were more urban-industrial, less orthodox, and more attracted to secular education.
With the growth in the Jewish population, the city’s demographics were affected as the Lower East Side became increasingly congested. The area’s Tenth Ward was said to be more densely populated than the worst districts of Bombay. Jewish migration increased further with new bridges and subways that made Brooklyn more accessible. Jewish neighborhoods arose in Williamsburg, New Lots, Coney Island, and Harlem.
In the late nineteenth century, there was a rise in anti-Semitism, frightening the German-Jewish population that this resent would spread due to the new Eastern European Jews. While they voiced their concerns of living with them, the German-Jewish community wasn’t insensitive to the Eastern European Jews. Western European Jews worked towards getting immigrants to America, forcing the German-Jewish population to accept their close existence. German- Jews did try to influence the new batch of immigrants by introducing americanized lifestyles to them. German-Jews established associations and agencies like the Educational Alliance that provided vocational and citizenship training. Alliance directors, once strict about their programs and upset by resistance to americanization, soon became more responsive to their members’ desires and introduced classes in Yiddish language and culture. German-Jews solved what they believed as embarrassing problems through organizations such as The Jewish Prisoners Aid Society and the Lakeview Home for Jewish Unwed Mothers.
While violent crimes were uncommon in Jewish communities, the most widespread and disturbing crime was prostitution. The Lower East Side became known as the “world’s brothel” and more than 2000 prostitutes were Jewish.
For those people seeking out faces from the native shtetlach group, the landsmanshaft organizations proved useful. These organizations promoted cultural continuity and unity and provided various social services like housing and life insurance. One of the most significant organizations, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society provided burial facilities for immigrant Jews who died on Ellis Island.
Unlike other contemporary immigrants, Jews were better suited for the urban life in New York as they were well trained in the world of commerce and manufacturing, thus increasing Jewish dominance in the garment industry. By the 1880’s, 90 percent of businesses were owned by German Jews. Jews also experienced unfair labor practices, which led to the formation of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union. Union membership became even more important with the Triangle shirtwaist fire.
In terms of politics, Jews began by following the German community in casting their votes for the party of Lincoln. However, as political groups started becoming more responsive to their concerns, two political strains competed for their votes. The Republicans were vocally critical of Russia’s anti-Semitic policies. On the other hand, many Jews were voting for Tammany, in hopes of electing a candidate who promised a clean government, legislation to improve working conditions, opposition to immigrant restrictions, and criticism of czarist Russia. For these reasons, Theodore Roosevelt’s progressivism gained support from Jewish Republicans. The Socialist party gained much popularity in the Jewish community with Morris Hilquit’s candidacy who advocated for material improvement and resented corruption and inequality. Although his candidacy fell short against Tammany and the Republicans, another socialist party candidate running from the Lower East Side, Meyer London won a seat in 1914. Many believed this was due to the understanding that socialism was actually “Judaism secularized.” Secularism became more important than orthodoxy evident through the impact urban life had on the declining centrality of religion among Jews. This mov was fueled by declining religious education and a short supply of rabbis.
A push away from strong religious values aligned well with the push away from cultural traits that Jews believed would be possible through schools. Even daughters were encouraged to attend for this reason. Educational attainment was a popular ideal in the Jewish community, but met with obstacles due to the lack of facilities and the fact that students had to leave school early in order to work.
Out of all the cultural practices remaining in the community, the Yiddish theater was the most popular. It provided its community with an escape from the poverty and drudgery they dealt with in their everyday lives, while showing its audience what their reality was. The subject matter of plays were commonly realistic and relatable including generational conflict, dealing with both secularism and religion, and balancing an ethnic identity. The Yiddish theater became a way of participating in the American life.
Italians, different from Jews, closely resembled groups in the old immigration due to their lack of urban-oriented skills. Italian men provided manual labor and were even appointed by workers to be strikebreakers. Labor contractors, known as the padroni, took a share of newcomers’ wages and in return helped the Italian find housing, jobs, and wrote letters for the illiterate immigrants. While they soon became less essential in the Italian immigration, they had gained opposition by native-born American who didn’t agree with contract labor, as it resembled slavery.
Italian communities, especially Harlem was plagued by crime. Sicilian immigration brought with it members of the Mafia. Sicilian criminals engaged in written threats, called “Black Hand”, demanding money for protecting businesses. While Black Hand threats were common, organized large-scale migration of the Mafia was not. Nonetheless, a separate Italian division was established in the police.
While at first Italians occupied unskilled construction jobs, they did see an upward path of occupational mobility. The amount of children of immigrants engaged in white collar work grew immensely and by the outset of World War I, they had become a significant portion of the emerging middle class. The city’s Little Italys consisted of bankers, newspaper editors, owners of large barber shops, and importers. Soon, they had access to better housing.
In terms of religion, the Italians faced opposition by the Irish hierarchy that existed in New York’s churches, who believed that that Italians were too lax, anti-clerical, and poorly trained. The Italians, on the other hand, didn’t trust churches in America. This distrust existed in their churches in Italy as well as they believed the hierarchical organization of the church was not responsive to their needs. To solve this problem between the Italians and the Irish, Archbishop Michael A. Corrigan and John Cardinal Farley requested more Italian priests and expanded parish activities in Italian neighborhoods.
To conclude, while the Jewish experience differed greatly from the Italian, the outbreak of World War I affected both populations similarly, stimulating the Americanization process. Over time, both groups like many immigrant groups would grow distant from their ethnic identities.
-K.A
